Saturday, April 5, 2014

Delightful Gay Fairytale

The old saying "Nice guys finish last" seems to be Mason Lawrence's fate in life until he decides to take his fate his own hands and be bold in Second Star to the Right, a delightful gay romance fairy tale.

Mason is at the top of his game, a workaholic who owns his own company and has friends with whom he enjoys meeting. What he doesn't have, and dearly wishes for, is a partner with whom to share his life. He's not so much pushed around by those he knows as much as wants everyone around him to be happy, and he works to make them so.

Before going on a vacation, he succumbs to the thought of a paid companion to revive his sex life and possibly his forgotten enjoyment of life. What he gets is Jack, jaded at almost thirty and without any skills other than sexual prowess.

Jack immediately lays down his rules, including sex only twice a day and his right to be given time out whenever he needs it. Mason is fine with the rules, but inadvertently starts breaking them as he and Jack become more than worker and client.

Although it seems as if Mason and Jack are eons apart - Jack wanting to become Peter Pan (hence the book title) and Mason aching for a permanent partner - Henley gradually brings them together as the caregiver becomes the care-receiver.

The success of this plot depends on the strength of its characters. Unless the reader buys into the fact that the people in this relationship (which on the surface looks like a train wreck about to happen) can come together successfully, the book is doomed.

Here's where Henley shines. On the surface Mason's too-good-to-be-true personality should be repulsive since he seemingly lets people push him around. But Mason has a spine of steel. It's not that he's a push-over but rather that's he's burnt out after a lifetime of building his company and working 60-hour weeks. His entire life has settled in a rut. And how many men do we know just like Mason?

Read the rest of my review at All About Romance: http://www.likesbooks.com/cgi-bin/bookReview.pl?BookReviewId=10064

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